Need To Reboot Our Mindsets Post Demonetisation

Come 1st December and we saw a bunch of articles flying across the media both social and the print. Articles with alarming headings like Pay Day Turns Pain Day, Long Queues on Pay Day and the likes.

It made us wonder that while the country was trying its level best to minimize the effects of demonetisation by maximizing the use of online payment facilities like the NEFT, IMPS, RTGS etc that have been in existence for past many years now, then why this pay day surge. Not only that, cashless payment facilities like that through phones have been made available in hordes, the e-wallet, PayTm, MobiLink etc etc, to name a few. Then why should the queues at the ATM’s and Banks double up across the nation on the 1st day of the month itself? A question to ponder indeed and the imperative need to reboot our mindsets post demonetisation

No doubt the majority of salaries get released on the last day of the month and are available for withdrawal the next day, but then why does everyone have to rush to the bank to take out his salary in cash. Why wont the mindsets switch to the idea, and its not rocket science to fathom to initially go in for making all possible expenditures that can be done online like the electricity bills, phone bills, cable bills, ECS’s, EMI’s, payments to major vendors and the list goes on and on. This should take care and consume a major spend from people’s salaries.

Its also true that many people like domestic helps, maids, cooks, personal drivers, labourers from unorganized sectors etc who do not have accounts still and don’t have any other means of accepting payments will genuinely require payments to be given to them in cash. But then in that case the cash requirement would be much less and disbursed over the week. So what was the rush to hit the ATM’s and Bank’s on the Pay Day itself. At least in cities like Delhi, Gurgaon and Mumbai, people could easily regulate their expenditures so as to ease out their own and their dependents inconveniences. Such sensible acts also give breathing space to the already over stretched banks.

In line with the logic above, an online poll could help us infer if our thought process synchs with the majority public mindset or not. This would additionally give us an insight into:

a) whether the people were really jumping onto the cashless bandwagon.b) where we actually lack and what remedial actions could be taken.

Hence a simple online poll to capture the mindsets of the people was set up. A snapshot of its results on completion is as below:

True to our basic assumptions, the response from the twitterati didn’t leave any aota of doubt in what we assumed people should be doing and what actually they were doing. Rebooted Mindsets post demonetisation were already up and running in the right direction, contradicting any pessimists that might still be lurking in the dark.

However reality of internet access, educating people outside the metros particularly rural areas and sustained media campaign to handle and change the cultural habit of stashing money in cash at homes needs to be taken up at a war footing by not only the govt but also the citizens of the country.

Additionally the govt. needs to simultaneously come up with rules and regulations to assure the populace on the safety and security of their digital / non physical assets roping in the banks with clear cut and defined responsibilities to assure the same. This should go a long way in establishing govt credibility and its seriousness in encouraging cashless transactions across all strata of society and across the country.

Nonetheless, its clearly evident that the massive ball of digital revolution of India has started rolling and by virtue of its heavy mass, the mere momentum of it should see the economy and development of India bouncing to new highs that could not have been easily attained otherwise.